Ranchero: A Sketch, A Review

Just got back home from CCP with Ranchero's imagery still in my mind.

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The biggest hindrance for me was the venue and time. Manila, Roxas Blvd at 9pm. But I got dressed and went out the door and decided to take the train. Two train rides. On the EDSA MRT off to Taft station--then hop to the MANILA LRT down on Vito Cruz station.

It's been awhile since I travelled in Manila. I believe the last time was during finals week, senior year. The place never fails to leave a damp impression on me, that festering feeling. But in an odd way I found pleasure in it, maybe because it was a grey late afternoon.

***

Got in a little early, three hours early. But the lobby was already full cause "Jay" was already starting. A sense of accomplishment came over me seeing the poster of "Ranchero" displayed together with the others. I met up with Michael and JT at the lobby and spent the remainder of the time with them seated in front of the main theater entrance. Eugene Domingo came over and congratulated Michael, she seems nice...I saw Jessica Zafra!...wait I must follow her...she's coming my way!...should I talk to her?... call out her name?...shit wala akong camera...teka paalis na siya...she's going outside the building...wait. why am I following her? dex! peram ng cam...bugsy!...shit nawala na siya...Sir Tats! pauwi na po kayo? wag po muna manood kayo ng Ranchero!...hindi na nanood nako ng "Jay"...o tara na...nandun sa taas si Direk...wag mo na ubusin ang yosi...maaga pa ang gabi...anong bangkero?...hindi sagwan yung nasa poster...

***

9PM-ish the theater lights dimmed.

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RANCHERO: My Film Review

I wish I came to the cinema without knowing anything about it just to be able to give a more objective account. But since I'm kinda involved with the film I saw a few rough cuts na during post production. But I'll try so here goes

***SPOILERS**

I must say when the director first approached me to make the promotional materials I was already intrigued with the plot he conveyed. In my mind I saw it had a lot of potential to be a brooding, dark and tragic film. Fortunately/unfortunately it's the kind of film that I'm drawn to. It’s the kind of film that I like.

In a nutshell Ranchero is a film about a criminal inmate, Ricardo, who’s about to be set free. He is stationed as a cook in the kitchen of a provincial prison responsible for the everyday meals of all the prisoners. Certain events play to his disadvantage and threaten his chances of being let out. The entire film happens in the course of one day.

The opening credits foreshadow the films gravity towards simplicity/minimalism. The misty mood is set by the great music score (byToto Sorioso) with each phrase appears/disappears abuptly in black and white. The guitar plucks and strums develop into a steady rising rhythm only to be syncopated and reset again and again—throughout the film.

Initially, I felt that the film had a lot of dragging scenes at the beginning. And I was worried that, as Director Joe Wright would call it, enough “indulgent” shots would litter the cut to make the audience yawn more than a couple of times. The camera if not stationary, undulates and lingers on scenes without much unraveling. The acting is a bit contrived at some parts but the film succeeds in featuring a believable sketch of life in prison.

The ending of the film gives a haunting ring to the possibility of two outcomes. And surpisingly enough I thought that the “drag” I felt from the beginning capped the finale perfectly. Seeing the movie as a whole made me realize that the dragging scenes had a place in the film after all. We must feel the monotony of life inside prison where everything happens repetitively; where life is reduced to mundane trivialities; where time spreads the human mind thin—barely able to hold its sanity; in order for us to understand the smile on Ricardo’s face as he walked out of his cell to the kitchen on his last day inside…or his utter grief as he weeps inside the kitchen towards the end.

The film has no witty narrations, complicated subplots and fancy camera work. It just simply wants to show us an instance of a life colliding with forces/powers beyond him; a life realizing the irrelevance of morality, the good and the bad, when everything seems already predetermined.

A world wherein doing what is right doesn’t guarantee positive consequence.

It is in the monotony of “Ranchero” that we find the tragedy unraveling in a slow subtle way. It is what makes it sublime.